z21 Connections

Operation with Smartphone, iPad, Tablet, PC, handheld devices

The app for Android and iPhone is called "Z21 mobile”. For the iPad you are using the app "Z21 HD". There is also a "Z21 updater" app for Android which allows you to update the Z21 with the latest firmware.

It is not yet possible to insert your own icons for the locomotive functions.

Adjustments of the Z21 settings are related to the stop button of the control centre, while the app settings refer to the stop button of the screen. The setting of the stops can therefore be set separately with both control options.

Yes, the CVs can be read via the smartphone or tablet. You can find a specific programming mask in the App for this.

This option is already implemented in the Android app. The iOS version is currently in the testing phase and will be available with the next app update. The routine read out in POM-mode requires the automatic query of the CVs via RailCom used on the main track. For that reason Railcom must be enabled in both, the Z21 and the RailCom enabled decoder. Usually Railcom is activated in the decoder via CV28 = 3 and CV29 Bit 3 = 1, refer also to the corresponding decoder manual.

As the first smartphone, the second connects also to the router: Among the "Smartphone Settings" under "Wireless", you can find a list of discovered routers and there you should also find "Z21 ... wxyz". Simply select this router by touch and log in according to the documents supplied with the Z21!

Yes, you can simultaneously connect up to ten smartphones and tablets, and up to 31 conventional X-BUS controllers. So there is nothing to stop you from having a fun evening driving your locos together with your friends – with and without smartphones.

Yes, that is possible. The connection is established via the LAN interface (network port) on your computer.

To update the firmware and for the advanced settings on the Z21-Maintenance Tool (see download area), Windows is recommended. Z21-Maintenance can also be used with the support of WINE with MacOS and Linux.

Alternatively, the firmware update can be carried out via the "Z21 updater" app on Android.

If you want to use a PC controller for the automation of your model railway layout, you can use the following programs:

TrainController (Windows)

iTrain (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

Rocrail (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

ModellStw (Windows)

Yes, if you wish to, the Z21 can also be operated via a wide selection of manual controllers and various input devices. Refer to the assembly drawings "All connections of Z21", section "X-BUS" and "LocoNet BUS Part 1".To configure the settings and for the firmware update, we still recommend to consider an optional connection to an app or to a PC.

Via the PC: TrainController, iTrain, Rocrail or ModellStw.

Via the X-BUS or LocoNet interface (eg: multiMAUS, IB-Switch, ...)

In the app you can take pictures of several track layout sections and they can then be built accordingly. You can then use the control elements to position the switches and signals above the pictures. Of course, due to its smaller display, the Smartphone has its limits, especially when compared to the tablet. For larger track layout installations, PC control programs such as TrainController, iTrain, Rocrail or ModellStw are recommended.

Yes, you are welcome to download the operating instructions for the Taurus-cab from the Z21 site in the Download area.

Prices vary: The Taurus is for free - others, such as the BR52-cab-add-on cost € 10, -.

The "Z21 mobile" and the "Z21 HD" are for free and so are the "Z21 updater" app and the Z21-Maintenance Tool for the advanced settings and firmware update.For more information about the prices of the PC control programs please contact your manufacturer.

No, the two Vmax values are completely independent on the display. But each value uses the highest recorded speed level.

Most Loco data is not saved in the Z21, but in the app. That means that access to the same data with any control device is not possible. In each device, the data must be newly entered (eg MultiMAUS) or they can be copied from app to app. In the device center, only the most important information about the track signal generation of each locomotive/turnout is stored, such as the format (DCC / Motorola) and the number of possible speed levels. Therefore some adjustment options in offline mode are grayed out in the app.

On the Z21 no web server is implemented. Firmware updates can be carried out on the Z21-Maintenance Tool (see download area) and via the update app (Android). The most important settings can be changed via the Z21 App and the advanced settings in the Z21 Maintenance Tool.

Multiple units and trains can be composed in the app with the "Rail Vehicle settings". But first the “traction settings” of each locomotive must be configured. This is also done via the rail vehicle settings.

This is almost possible. If you have connected your new digital center and the supplied wireless router, you still need to register your smartphone in the Z21 and download the appropriate app ("Z21 mobile" or "Z21 HD") via Internet. And there you go: Put your first locomotive on the main track !

Flashing blue: emergency stop is triggered

Flashing red: short circuit, current overload

Green static: CV programming

Green flashing slowly: Decoder Update

Reset packets (start): determines the number of DCC reset packets at the very beginning of the programming sequence during the CV reading / writing. The higher the value, the more time the decoder gets to boot.

Programming packets: determines the number of DCC reading/ writing tests in the CV-programming sequence.

Reset packets (continue): determines the number of DCC reset packets between the programming steps.

For further explanations see also the Z21 Maintenance Tool operating manual (in the download area), chapter "3.2 Settings", as well as for technical details the NMRA standard S-9.2.3 Service Mode For Digital Command Control ".

Interfaces

X-BUS (XpressNet), L-BUS (LocoNet) and CAN designate different systems for serial data transmission. Interface, device port and protocol must belong to the same transmission system, so that a device works.

Data can be read out via the RailCom and the DCC controlled locomotive (also cars etc.). We are currently not aware that there is a command, which allows you to transmit this data via LocoNet.

The Z21 CAN bus is designed for the future Zimo ZCAN20 protocol. Integration tests with the throttle MX32 are currently being carried out. When exactly the new ZCAN20 protocol and the new firmware for the MX32 of Zimo will be released, we do not yet know at this point.

On the Sniff-BUS, "disused" DCC control centers can be connected with an output voltage starting from 16V onwards. This control center can be used as an additional handheld throttle. However, the direction of transmission goes only from the external center to the Z21, but the locomotive can still be transferred to another operating device of the Z21.For a correct synchronization please note the following switch-on sequence: First switch on Z21, then the external control center. But usually the Z21 starts faster than any other older control center anyhow.

Compatibility with Roco / Fleischmann Digital Components

Behind the new digital system Z21 is the idea of using only the best and most widely spread technologies for longterm security and use. In the field of wireless communication amongst smartphones and tablets, WiFi has clearly become the established standard. Therefore, our Z21-control center has no ZigBee radio module. As a result, no multiMAUSPRO devices can be operated directly from the Z21 control center. Nevertheless, we are currently working on the development of an appropriate interface. Until that happens, however, you can operate the multiMAUSpro with the multiZENTRALEpro on the Sniff-BUS of the Z21.

This is not possible because in the Z21 the number of available characters for the locomotive name are limited and the key numbers are outdated. With the new locomotive data sets of the Z21 far more information (long names, function keys, screen, etc.) can be entered than was ever possible with the multiMAUS. Therefore the formats are not compatible.

The use of the interface 10785 on the Z21 is not possible. The connection to the PC in the Z21 is made by LAN .

The TWIN-BOOSTER can not be used, but the TWIN-CENTER can be connected to the Z21 in two ways: You can configure the TWIN-CENTER as a LocoNet slave (FW V2.000, special option 844 = 1). With that the Z21 still remains the LocoNet Master and the TWIN-CENTER functions as an input device. Alternatively, you can configure the Z21 in the Z21 Maintenance Tool (please see download area) as a LocoNet slave. In this case, the TWIN-CENTER remains the LocoNet Master. This makes it possible to control your existing railway layout with both the TWIN-CENTER and the Z21 app on your smartphone, tablet and multiMAUS.The track and if applicable, also the boosters, should always both be connected to the LocoNet Master because it is only the LocoNet Master that generates the track signal.

When you connect the Z21 with the TWIN-CENTER please also note the following:

To avoid that both centers feed the supply voltage to the LocoNet bus at the same time, the supply voltage (pin 1 and pin 6) must be isolated at the L-bus interface of the Z21, from the rest of the Z21 LocoNet. To do this, please use the task specific, specially designed white "Z21 LocoNet cable slave" together with the spare part, item number 136100. These cables are available at your your local dealer or online at roco.cc - Service Parts. Using the wrong cables can cause severe damage and destruction to your control center!

Locomotives with pure FMZ-decoders will not be able to understand the track output signals in the DCC or Motorola system ! After all, for many years Fleischmann has offered decoders and also recently provided “bilingual” FMZ/DCC decoders in their product range. If this is the case and you use such decoders, you can control the locomotives with DCC!

In the issue 2/2012 of our company magazine "Model Train Report" (Pages 87-90) you can find detailed information about how to digitally control the rotary movement of the turntables: For the Fleischmann turntable 6152C the Fleischmann-Turn-Control 6915 is required, for the Roco turntable 42615 the Littfinski-Decoder TT-DEC-R is necessary. Until now there were some special tricks to be found and also shown in the track diagram of the software control Rocomotion. Those can also be applied to the Roco and Z21-related follow-up software "TrainController" from the software development company Freiwald.

For the Fleischmann Turn-Control 6915 we recommend that you connect via LocoNet.

Yes, the Z21 can generate the RailCom gap. You can continue to use the Roco-Boosters but, as all previous boosters before, they will not be able to evaluate the RailCom signal. Crossing the cut off point may lead to micro short circuits due to the RailCom gap. That's why the RailCom should be disabled if possible when you are using previous versions of the Roco boosters.

Compatibility with external digital components

Yes, that is possible! It is crucial that you select the Morotorola format in the app before you enter the locomotive settings. The Motorola I and II formats can be used in addition to the DCC.The speed steps settings in the app with "Motorola" symbolize the following:

"14": Motorola MM I with address 1 to 80, 14 speed steps and F0

The advanced speed steps are thereby encoded in the so-called "light-Trit". Previous versions of the MM decoders might not be able to understand this format.No matter whether the engine is controlled via app or hand controller, the decoder always will resort to the originally defined format in the Z21. In other words, you now can even control a Motorola locomotive with the multiMAUS.

Littfinski digital components that support the DCC or Motorola-protocol can be connected to the Z21. Feedback modules for the s88-bus can not be connected.

Due to the vast number of s88-kits and various "craft projects", a galvanic isolation of the LocoNet bus from the rail can not be guaranteed. That is also the reason why we must preemptively say a categorical “no” to any connection of the “s88-LocoNet-Adapter” to the Z21.

The Intellibox can be connected to the Z21 in two ways: You can configure the Intellibox as a LocoNet slave (FW V2.001, special Option 844 = 2). Thereby the Z21 continues to be the LocoNet Master and the Intellibox functions as an input device. Alternatively, you can configurate the Z21 as a LocoNet slave in the Z21 Maintenance Tool (see download area). In this case, the Intellibox LocoNet acts as the LocoNet-Master. This makes it possible to control your existing railway installation with both the Intellibox, as well as the Z21 app on your smartphone, tablet and multiMAUS. In both cases the track and optionally the boosters are to be connected to the LocoNet-Master because it is only the LocoNet-Master that can generate the track signal.When you connect the Z21 with the Intellibox please always consider the following:

To avoid that both centers feed the supply voltage to the LocoNet bus at the same time, the supply voltage (pin 1 and pin 6) must be isolated from the rest of the Z21 LocoNet at the L-bus interface of the Z21. To do this, please use the task specific, specially built white "Z21 LocoNet cable slave" together with the spare part, item number 136100. These cables are available at your your local dealer or online at roco.cc - Service parts.

The use of a inappropriate cable can lead to severe damage and destruction of the control center!

This problem requires a more specific explanation and the term "turnout address" should thus not just relate to turnouts, but also to signals and other magnetic components – unfortunately due to a weakness in the DCC specification, different methods of how to present turnout addresses emerged over the years. Technically, the “turnout address” that is visible to the user, can only be “translated” with a combination of a module address and a port address in the DCC control center and only then is it possible to apply it to the track. It is precisely this "translating process" that is not yet standardized. Each module address includes 4 turnouts ("Ports"). Depending on whether the central control system starts counting at the module address 0 or 1, the turnout address, in direct comparison, appears to be shifted to the value 4. Due to the insufficient specification none of the two counting methods can basically be evaluated as "wrong" or "right".Roco has always numbered its turnouts starting with module address 0 ever since. Some other DCC controler centers and decoder manufacturers start counting from module address. 1.

If a turnout with e.g. a module address 1 and port address 1, receives the signal, it will be switched by the Roco control center under the turnout address = 1 * 4 + 1 = 5, but with the external control center under the turnout address = 0 * 4 + 1 = 1. Now it can be the case, especially when migrating from an existing DCC external control system to the Z21, that due to the different counting modules, the normally used turnout addresses appear to be shifted by the value of 4. If a turnout was controlled until now with the turnout address 1 (as shown in the previous example) with the external control center, it is now activated with the turnout address 5 on the Z21. It is especially confusing, if the address of a new modern turnout decoder is being programmed via CV, and the decoder proceeds the "counting starting with Module 1" without further explanation. To ease the transition or the use of external decoders for customers, we offer the option "DCC turnout address displacement +4" in the Z21 Maintenance Tool. If this option is set, the "translation" from the turnout address to the module address and to the compatible port number of the external control system will be made in the Z21. Thus, for example, the turnouts and signals can be continued to be used with the previously used turnout addresses.Finally we would like to mention that this problem only occurs in relation to the DCC. With the Motorola turnout decoders the turnout addresses and track signal generation is clear.

Technical Details

The output voltage in the black Z21 is adjustable between 12 and 23V. Important: The maximum output voltage is about 1V lower than the voltage of the used power supply. Use of a 20V power supply: maximum output voltage 19V Use of a 24V power supply (maximum): max. output voltage 23V If you switch the power supply in the app to 18V (although the power supply only delivers up to 16V) you will have an output voltage of about 15V. If you use the white Z21 the output voltage is not adjustable and delivers approx. 1V less than the input voltage. FYI: Please note that you can’t measure the output voltage reliably using a conventional multimeter. This applies both for the DCC signal, and especially for the asymmetric Motorola signal.

This is only valid for the duration of the programming process.

The power output on the track output is a product of the set track voltage and the maximum output current. The track voltage can be set in the black Z21. The maximum output current is 3 amps. By connecting a booster, the output power can be increased accordingly.

With model railways it is always possible that short circuits occur. For safety reasons and to prevent damages, the Z21 recognizes both short circuits as well as overloads, and as soon as currents above 3A emerge it immediately switches off. In our view, it is better to limit the amperage per booster section.

The upper limit allowed by the firmware version V1.24 is 100 locomotives. An appropriate prioritization of the driving commands ensures a good response behavior of the locomotives.

The Z21 can generate DCC with 14, 28 and 128 speed levels as well as Motorola MMI and MMII.

Yes, the Z21 can generate the RailCom gap. The RailCom gap, however, can also be deactivated in the app settings or in the Z21 Maintenance Tool, if there should be any problems with previous versions of decoders or boosters.

The Z21-LAN protocol is officially released since the beginning of 2013 and can be found in the download area. It is not subject to license.

The WiFi socket can connect the supplied router to your home network / Internet connection. Thus, the Internet is always available on your Smartphone / Tablet. The Z21 has to always be connected to the LAN port of the WiFi router, which are the yellow sockets.

Dimensions wireless router: 174mm x 144mm x 30mm

You can not measure the output voltage of the Z21 with a multimeter. The output voltage is a pulsed alternating voltage. Also, the Motorola signal (IDLE command!) is asymmetrical. The digital decoder evaluates this pulsed alternating voltage and from there generates the operating voltage and the driving information of the locomotive. Standard multimeters are calibrated with sinusoidal voltages in the AC voltage range. If you measure other non-sinusoidal voltages with it, you will obtain false values.

Miscellaneous

Our Boosters deliver about three amperes. The power consumption of your system, you can estimate as follows: A standing locomotive with its light on, consumes about 100mA, a driving locomotive between 300 and 600 mA. Bulbs need 30mA, and LED 10mA. For digital couplings and smoke generators add 100mA each, for turnout decoders and switch point machines count with an additional 500mA.

No, because some older Zimo decoders are sensitive to an interruption of the programming process. Therefore, the decoder update has been limited to more current decoders, which are distributed by Roco and guarantee a secure update. The decoder update is carried out with the Z21 Maintenance Tool, see download area.

With the Z21, it is neither possible to transfer sounds to the ESU LocoSound nor to edit them. To record a new sound on the ESU LokSound decoder, the ESU LocoProgrammer is required (software and hardware).

The "little" power supply unit is more than adequate. You will never run your model railway layout with 3A for an extended period, because you certainly will also wish to switch turnouts and more, which only causes current peaks for a short time. Throughout the market these accessories can well consume 0.5A. If the power supply of the power supply unit is 2.6A, full reserve is still available due to the storage capacitors in the Z21 for a longer period. The values of the power supply unit we indicated, are also to be considered rather "conservative".

Yes, you are welcome to download the Z21 user manual in the download area of the Z21 site.

No, for various reasons, we will offer the Z21 only in combination with the wireless router. Some of these reasons we would like to explain to you here:

The majority of our customers are not necessarily WiFi experienced, but we would like to deliver the product as a Plug & Play.

Few customers have LAN connection for their home router available that is next to their model railway layout.

Many clients have built their model railway layout outside the secure wireless zone of their home router and that’s why we deliver the built-in router to provide secure wireless reception directly on the model railway layout.

Unfortunately, you can not use the supplied Router "TP-Link" as a repeater for an existing wireless network. If that worked, you would also have to reconfigurate your Smartphone or Tablet by the way!

On the back of the TP-Link device, on the far left there is a recessed reset button, which can be pressed with a ballpoint pen. How the router can be put back into operation, you can read in the Z21 Router Configuration Manual in the download area.

Any information about changing the password of the Z21-WiFi can be found in the Z21 Router Configuration Manual in the download area.

To make the Z21 accessible even to LAN/WiFi inexperienced users, we chose to deliver a completely preconfigured product including pre-configured wireless router. In some cases it may be desirable to use an existing home router. The modification of the IP address of the control center is possible with the Z21 Maintenance Tool. We did not integrate this function into the Z21 app because the testing risk, to us, seemed to high.In case of problems after the change of the IP address, the Modelleisenbahn GmbH can not provide any support. We would like to ask for your understanding.

Tip: If you have still changed or forgotten the IP address, there is still the possibility to scan the network via the app “Fing” where all devices with IP and MAC addresses of the network are displayed. The MAC address of the Z21 starts with "84: 2B: BC".